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Congress now has three different cannabis bills and three different approaches before it. One approach, taken by the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (the SAFE Banking Act), is to focus specifically on the difficulties faced by the banking, insurance and payments sectors. Another approach, taken by the Strengthening the…
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Financial services regulatory reform continues to evolve in 2019.  As we observe the changing landscape, here is the Fall Focus Edition of our reference tool, which provides context and summarizes current developments across a range of key regulatory areas, agencies and actors.  We will continue to track these issues and…
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For those following Congressional efforts to solve the challenges of banking the cannabis sector, we have updated our briefing on the two pending bills in light of the Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday July 23 on “Challenges for Cannabis and Banking:  Outside Perspectives.”  We cover both of the two…
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Financial services regulatory reform continues to evolve in 2019.  As we observe the changing landscape, here is the Summer Spotlight Edition of our reference tool, which provides context and summarizes current developments across a range of key regulatory areas, agencies and actors.  We will continue to track these issues and…
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The House Financial Services Committee unanimously recommended to the full House on May 9, 2019 a bill that would reform the U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) regime.  H.R. 2514, the Coordinating Oversight, Upgrading and Innovating Technology, and Examiner Reform Act of 2019 (the COUNTER Act), would amend the Bank Secrecy Act…
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There is now a serious effort underway by the usually divided Congress to find a way for the growing cannabis sector to enter the mainstream financial sector.  Our newest visual memorandum updates our earlier briefing on the two legislative vehicles:  the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (the SAFE Banking …
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We recently wrote an article for Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law outlining the state of play for the financial services sector’s relationship with the U.S. cannabis sector.  Our article summarizes the dilemma arising from the widening gulf between static federal prohibitions and changing state laws.  We consider and reject a number…
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Cannabis banking legislation reached a new milestone last week. Following a markup session, the House Financial Services Committee on March 28 approved an amended SAFE Banking Act in a 45-15 vote. As our visual memorandum discussed in February, the bill offers a safe harbor and other protections for depository institutions…
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Financial services regulatory reform continues to evolve in 2019.  As we observe the changing landscape, here is the New Congress Edition of our reference tool, which provides context and summarizes current developments across a range of key regulatory areas, agencies and actors.  We will continue to track these issues and…
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